Saxophone Colossus (1957)

Sonny Rollins shows how a master improviser can build a whole world out of simple melodic fragments. On the opening calypso, St. Thomas, his buoyant tenor keeps returning to the tune's shape, and Max Roach answers with a drum solo so melodic you can almost sing it. Then Blue 7 stretches a plain blues into a lesson in thematic development that never loses its swing.